d 'round, just as if it was no work at all but
pure fun, as indeed it was.

Bobby Coon had waited so long that it was almost more than he could do to
be patient any longer, but if you really want a thing, it is worth waiting
for, and so Bobby gave a great sigh and tried to make himself more
comfortable. At last Mistah Buzzard came sailing down straight for the tall
dead tree. With two or three flaps of his great wings he settled down on
his favorite perch and looked down at Bobby Coon.

"Good mo'ning, Brer Coon," said Ol' Mistah Buzzard.

"Good morning, Mistah Buzzard; I hope you are feeling very well this
morning," replied Bobby Coon as politely as he knew how.

"Fair to middling well," said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, with a twinkle in his
eyes. "What can Ah do fo' yo'all?"

"If you please, Mistah Buzzard, you can tell me if there is anybody way
down South where you come from who can make his voice sound just like the
voices of other people. Is there?" Bobby was using his very politest
manner.

"Cert'nly! Cert'nly!" chuckled Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "It's Mistah Mockah the
Mocking-bird. Why, that bird just likes to go around making trouble; he
just naturally likes to. He just goes around mocking everything and
everybody he hears, until sometimes it seems like yo' couldn't be sure of
yo' own voice when yo' hear it. Why do yo' ask, Brer Coon?"

"Because he is right here in the Green Forest now," replied Bobby Coon.

"What's that yo' am a-saying, Brer Coon? What's that?" cried Ol' Mistah
Buzzard, growing very excited.

Then Bobby Coon told Ol' Mistah Buzzard all about the trouble on the Green
Meadows and in the Green Forest; how Sammy Jay had moved away to the Old
Pasture so that no one could say that he screamed in the night, and yet how
his voice was still heard; how Sticky-toes the Tree Toad was almost crazy
because his neighbors said he was noisy, when all the time he was sitting
with his mouth tight closed; and finally, how all the little meadow and
forest people refused to speak to one another because of the many unkind
things which had been overheard. And Bobby told what he had overheard the
night before when Unc' Billy Possum and a stranger had sat on the very log
in which Bobby had been taking, a nap. Ol' Mistah Buzzard chuckled.

"Yo' might have known Unc' Billy was behind all that trouble," said he.
"Yes, Sah, yo' might have known that ol' rascal was behind it. When Unc'
Billy Possum and Mockah get their haids to